UNA Professor Receives Distinguished Service Award

Nov. 04, 2025

Michelle R. Eubanks , UNA, at meubanks@una.edu, 256.765.4392

FLORENCE, AL – Dr. Michael Pretes, Professor of Geography at the 国产AV, is the 2025 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG), a professional organization that promotes geographical research and education in the Pacific Coast region of North America.

Pretes’s record “is distinguished, by any reckoning, his service to the discipline and the APCG in particular has been formidable, including serving as the APCG President and, more recently, accepting the election as the APCG representative to the American Association of Geographers Council, the ruling body for academic geography initiatives nationally,” said Paul Starrs, Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Nevada Reno.

Founded in 1935, the APCG also serves as the Pacific Coast Regional Division of the American Association of Geographers. Its members are geographers from the region, which includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory. Pretes, a native of California, has been active in the organization for more than 20 years while teaching at UNA.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes members with an outstanding and sustained contribution to the organization, the region, and the discipline of geography. Recipients are recognized for their contributions to student education, research and scholarship, and organizational leadership.

“Mike’s been willing to use his extensive network of contacts within the geography and environmental worlds to get things done,” said Steven Graves, Professor of Geography at California State University Northridge in Los Angeles.

In addition to being named the 2025 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from APCG, Pretes also served as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Geosciences at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado, where he taught geography courses to Air Force cadets, leading some of them on educational experiences at Rocky Mountain National Park and in the Cape Town region of South Africa.

“His dedication to helping cadets learn is truly exemplary,” said former Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General (Ret) Christopher Miller. “His innovative geoeconomic ‘wargame’ class session, in which he created a multi-dimensional challenge, required his cadets to think about many facets of military planning, cultural variables, and multi-actor political and economic interactions. I am impressed by his wide-ranging knowledge, but even more impressed by the way he focuses on sparking his cadets’ desire to continue learning about the kinds of things they will encounter as officers.”

Pretes returned to his role as a Professor of Geography in the Department of Geoscience at UNA at the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester. He said his time at the Air Force Academy was unforgettable.

“My year at the Air Force Academy was an amazing experience, giving me the opportunity to help train our future Air Force leadership and learn more about the country’s defense initiatives and policies,” Pretes said. “I look forward to building the relationship between the 国产AV and the Air Force Academy.”

About The 国产AV

The 国产AV is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The 国产AV is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: and .